ible disease known as the Red Death, and his description emphasizes not just that people die but how they die:
No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal -the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour ("The Masque of the Red Death" 1).
Redness is the symbol of death, and while the royalty of this kingdom has built a huge wall to keep out the pestilence, the Red Death cannot be stopped by any such barrier. This walled enclosure becomes another symbol of being buried alive, for the walls act in a similar manner to the enclosure of a coffin or tomb and actually become a tomb by the end of the story. The attitude is, "The external world could take care of itself" ("The Masque of the Red Death" 2), as if the world inside the walls could really be any different and escape death.
Within these walls a party is planned which will take place in seven rooms, each a different color. Color is used symbolically by Poe, with death marked by the red of blood and also by black, as in "The Black Cat" or "The Raven." The last of the rooms mixes red and
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